The 49 Van Ness-Mission seems to have plowed into a bus shelter. The tip and photos come from reader Blake via his friend Renna’s Facebook page. He says “One comment reminded that this is yet another reason to not eat at Farolito. Truth.”

Yikes. Anyone else see this? Hoping nobody was hurt.

(thanks, Blake!)

UPDATE: Commenter “Mulch” says “I was on the bus. No injuries. I talked to a guy who had just got up from the shelter. He said the bus just suddenly swerved into the curb. It also hit the light post right in front of it.”

23 Responses to “Dramatic Muni Accident at 24th and Mission”

I’m sure the driver will be suspended with pay for an indefinite period. Did anyone else read that a significant percentage of MUNI operators are not on duty (but are being paid) because their operator’s license is invalid/expired? The system is broken.

I was the guy who had just got out of the bus shelter a moment before it was crushed. I would have been in the shelter probably but was smoking a cigarette and felt that I should stand outside the shelter–that might have saved my life I guess? It was pretty intense when it happened though because the lady standing next to me and I had about one second to run out of the way after we saw the buses wheels suddenly turn in toward the curb and realized it was going to hit the shelter going fairly fast. The shelter completely exploded and she and I got out of the way just in time not to be hit by mangled metal pieces of the shelter. Pretty crazy experience! I don’t think I’ll ever wait in a bus shelter again (or, make sure I’m always smoking a cigarette when waiting for the bus?

Only the first sincere was really necessary, though — I wrote as one who smoked regularly for many years, and felt quite confident doing so, because no one in my family had ever had any kind of cancer — only to find myself on my hands and knees in front of the bathroom, one evening, unable to catch my breath, because smoking had damaged two of the arteries leading to my heart. I had a heart attack at a fairly middle age, and I’m lucky to be alive now. So if anybody out there is kidding themselves that smoking might be a life-saver, even as a joke on a rare occasion, I now feel that it is my duty to remind them that they are only playing cards with the inevitable (with a stacked deck, now).

Yep, as far as I could tell, no one was hurt, although that was pretty lucky, because the usual 20 or so people were milling around on that BART entrance corner. Also, there was another guy, also smoking a cigarette, who checked the bus map quickly in the shelter about a minute before the bus hit and demolished it.

My feeling is that maybe the bus shelters should not be so close to the curb. Also, the buses coming down Mission often seem to be going too fast when approaching the stops.